About

About Our Site:

By Common Consent (or BCC) was started in 2004 by a group of Mormons to provide a thoughtful, enjoyable, and reasonable place to post and discuss Mormon topics. Over time, we have added new contributors who share this vision. We seek truth, reason, and honesty with our perspectives on faith. However, BCC is a place of charitable discussion for everyone, including those who are not Mormon. We invite you to read past posts and join in the discussion. You can contact us via email at , and you can also follow us via Facebook, Twitter and Delicious.

Some of our authors are associated with Dialogue, an independent journal of Mormon thought. Occasionally, members of the editorial board of Dialogue will write blog posts as guests of BCC, on topics relevant to their journal. Dialogue does not provide input on content published by BCC’s authors.

BCC authors write independently and do not officially represent the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though they do represent a varied swath of their lived religion. Many of us have personal blogs that are worth visiting, detailed on each author’s page.

About the phrase “By Common Consent”:

The section of the Book of Commandments showing the origin of our site’s name.

Since its inception, Mormonism has embraced the principle of having each member of the church exercise free will. Members are invited to individually study things out in their minds and verify whether the teachings of the church are the will of God. When the leadership of the church present decisions, the appropriate body of members is asked to sustain or oppose the action, discerning God’s will through personal revelation. Thus the revelation given to Joseph Smith in July 1830: “…all things shall be done by common consent in the church, by much prayer and faith, for all things you shall receive by faith” (D&C 26:2). Our site celebrates this holy interplay of personal agency and revealed will.